April 21, 2002 Another good loon migration over Elgin/Middlesex Counties Today, 75 Common Loons flew over our loon watch in north-central Elgin County between 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. If not for the extraordinary 373 loons counted yesterday today's count would have beat our previous high of 60 loons in one morning. Andrew Ross counted 46 loons going over his place in London between 7:30 and 8:30. [Our other two loon watchers thought it was too cold for loons today and so didn't get out]. The loons going over our place are on a southeast to northwest heading from Lake Erie to Lake Huron. A line on a map drawn from Long Point Bay on Lake Erie to Kettle Point on Lake Huron passes almost directly over our loon watch and over London. Note that Alf Rider's earlier email to Ontbirds points out that loons started arriving on Lake Huron this morning, in a very narrow band north of Kettle Point but not south of the point, from points inland at 8:00 a.m. - about 1/2 hour after passing over our location. Given that the loons are flying at about 60 mph and it is 30 miles as a bird flies line from our place to Ipperwash it makes sense that the birds we start seeing at 7:30 reach Alf Rider's vantage point at Ipperwash about 30 minutes later. Other Reports: Ron Kingswood called from just west of Port Bruce on Lake Erie this morning to say that he had witnessed a tremendous migration of loons all flying west along the shoreline this morning from 6:30 a.m. onwards. He didn't see any loons heading inland at his vantage point. At 6:30 a.m. he estimated that over 100 loons passed him in less than a minute. At 6:45 he did a sweep of the lake and counted 108 loons in the air at once. At 7:45 he counted a group of 35 passing west. Follow up on yesterday's (Apr 20) huge migration. John Miles emailed that he had "103 go over heading west and north west in a 10-15 minute span while doing the census around 8:30. The flight started about 7 am and was still underway at 10 am." Alf Rider reported that "Carole Buck reported 60 + at 7 a.m. around Camlachie" (which is near Lake Huron north of Sarnia). He didn't notice any loon movement at Kettle Point. Dave Martin & Linda Wladarsk Harrietsville, ON dave.martin@odyssey.on.ca Dave Martin <dave.martin@odyssey.on.ca>